Malli wrote:Is there a lot of black tissue? Do you know if they debrided the laceration ?

It looks really ouchy Most likely they used staples because they were fast (and therefore less anesthetic time) but man they must be uncomfortable....

Hang in there, Dru! I think she'll feel SO much better when she has the puppies, so much less tension...

I don't know what that means...

There is a lot of bruising...they told me that yesterday...but I didn't get a good look until today...

I know she has regular sutures inside...well, the kind that disintegrate...

But you're right...once he got looking he realized he'd have to do the inside sutures, then reconstruct some things, and a mastectomy...so they may have done the staples for speed...

debrided = cleaned and removed any non-salvagable tissue. Sometimes they scrape the sides of the laceration to encourage the blood flow to stay in the area, and sometimes they actually cut tissue out if they know it will die off.

the blood tinged discharge from the drains is good. You want to avoid anything that is yellow or green or any other weird color and thick. Watery and bloody = good.

Is there any black tissue? black = dead Purple = might be viable, could kind of go either way. He would have flushed the subcutaneous ("under the skin" and above the muscles) space and probed it and the drains were placed where the pocket from the laceration ends and where fluid would be most likely to collect. Hot compresses are good and will encourage blood flow and healing and bring any infection out.

Hopefully that helped Maybe she can get some special treats for tolerating the compresses?

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
_______________________________________
"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

what if you and Greg did them together with a big kong full of wet food? one person holds the wet food and one person does the drain care/compress?

If you think she'll obey, I think its fair to use any obedience you have at your disposal here...

I'm impressed to hear that she's so tolerant of it I think that type of thing is difficult for shepherds/herding breeds, IME pain tolerance seems not to be one of their strong suits...

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
_______________________________________
"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Malli wrote:what if you and Greg did them together with a big kong full of wet food? one person holds the wet food and one person does the drain care/compress?

If you think she'll obey, I think its fair to use any obedience you have at your disposal here...

I'm impressed to hear that she's so tolerant of it I think that type of thing is difficult for shepherds/herding breeds, IME pain tolerance seems not to be one of their strong suits...

Unfortunately, I think being a working dog makes her more tolerant...Asja got severely hurt a few weeks ago at training (impaled herself with a rake)...and we didn't find the wound for 2 days...

But, unfortunately, out of all our dogs, she's just a pet, and has almost no obedience...she knows a few things, but nothing well enough to help us here...

She hasn't had much of an appetite, either... I don't know if it's b/c she's got puppies laying on her stomach, but she only eats a little bit at a time...that's why I'm feeding her about 10 times a day!

But, seriously, she rolled herself over earlier for a belly rub, and all this stuff came out of her drains...it was clear/reddish...like a blood tinged clear liquid...ick... I nearly passed out...and that was the first time I nearly got sick since this whole thing happened...

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
_______________________________________
"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Secondly, the incision looks pretty reasonable for what was done. The darkness around the incision itself is likely bruising. Sometimes, when there is a lot of tension around the incision (ie: it is tough to close), there may be some small pieces of skin that don't have adequate blood supply and may slough. I would think after she has the pups, the tension will decrease and then it will become more of a "keeping it clean issue" (which I know you will do ). Time will tell here. It may take several days for the skin to "declare" itself as healthy or not, but it looks, from the pictures, that she is doing well.